Video: Animating colors

There are times when we have certain objects that you want the color to change over the time. This could be an aging apple. It could be an environment like a sunset. So what I want to do is show you how to animate those colors right here in modo. What I have here is a very simple scene. This is called animatecolors. And it's nothing more than a flat polygon with the default directional light hitting it and the default camera focused right at it. Simple enough. In the Shader Tree, we have a material set up for the Color panel. And what we're going to do is select that, and then we're going to come over here--and what you're seeing here is actually keyframes from the camera.

In this course, author Dan Ablan walks through the process of understanding the MODO workflow while learning to create 3D models and animations. The course teaches fundamental tasks, such as modeling polygons and applying materials with the Shader Tree, while exploring scene building in depth through advanced lighting, camera, and animation techniques. The course also covers MODO's schematic tools and shows how to render animations for various playback media.

Animating colors

There are times when we have certain objects that you want the color tochange over the time.This could be an aging apple.It could be an environment like a sunset.So what I want to do is show you how to animate those colors right here in modo.What I have here is a very simple scene.This is called animatecolors. And it's nothing more than a flat polygon withthe default directional light hitting it and the default camera focused rightat it. Simple enough.In the Shader Tree, we have a material set up for the Color panel. And whatwe're going to do is select that, and then we're going to come over here--andwhat you're seeing here is actually keyframes from the camera.

So what we want to do is make sure that camera is not selected in the Items tab.We're going to select the plane itself, and in fact you can even just click offof it, and that will help clear up all of these tabs.You see, when you're in modo, you can click the camera, and then you can alsoclick and turn on a material and you'll get all these extra tabs down here.Sometimes they get in the way, so if that's the case, just click the Scenebutton up here, then go back to the Shader Tree, and you'll have just theMaterial categories you need.Originally, if you remember, we had the Camera Reference and the CameraSettings, because the camera was selected in addition to the material. So, just to keep organized.

Now with the Material selected, we have our base color of white, but notice thatthis Diffuse Color also has a keyframe button, so we can now easily change itskeyframe over the time.So I'm going to click on that. And we are at frame 0, meaning it's white at frame0. And then let's go to frame 12, and we'll click and drag right on here to changethe color to kind of a cyan, to a teal.But notice that because I already have a keyframe and my Auto Key is set toAnimated, when I went to frame 12, another keyframe was created and we have ananimated timeline in between.

I'll come to 24, change it to blue, go to 36, and we'll bring this back up,maybe to white, go to 48, click on the color, change it to red, and so on.You get the idea, that all we're doing is just changing this color over the time.When I play this back, you get the cycling colors. And right now the RayGL ison in this view; we can turn that off, don't necessary need that.

So from the front, it's white, to teal, to blue, fading in between all thesedifferent colors. So, a very nice easy way to create an effect that you can puton the material for a light source.So you can copy this material by right-clicking on it, choosing Copy, and thenyou can go to something like the Light Source.You can place that down for the material for the light, and let's say you'reanimating a nightclub or some kind of disco.You would have an animated light cycling colors.You're doing a stage play.You would have those animated lights.

You can put them on other objects as well.So animating colors, animating the shadow, all of these values that havethe little thumb marks are easily animated just by clicking on it, creatingkeyframes like I've shown you, moving to a different point in time, andchanging that value.Lastly, when we come back up to the Material, if we come down and select thelittle envelope and open the Graph Editor, you can actually see what we didhere. And if feel like tweaking any of these, you can very easily just selectthe color to Diffuse RGB is what we animated.You can select the individual channel, or of course select all of them, and thenyou can change how those channels interact by grabbing the handles and adjustingeach one of those motions.

You can mouse over, with the left mouse button, all of these, change it to Linearand then when you come back and play this, you are going to get a sharper changein between each of them.If you come back like this and change this to Stepped, now it's going to be alot rougher in between each of them.And it's just the different way modo handles each one of these motions.So now it just kind of cycles through each one of those, and it doesn't blend.

It just jumps in between each.Perhaps you want to animate a computer screen with a flashing monitor.That's a good way to do it.And then of course, you can come back and change its Slope to Auto Flat andchange this back to Curve, and it now evens these out very nicely.So using the Graph Editor, adjusting keyframes, setting that Diffuse Color toAnimate, you can also add some unique differences to any of the elements in yourscene. Animating colors, animating lights, and even animating textures on yourobjects is all easy to do.

Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

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Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
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